Thundering Zeus: The Making of Hellenistic BactriaThundering Zeus uses an innovative, interdisciplinary approach to resolve one of the greatest puzzles in all of Hellenistic history. This book explores the remarkable rise of a Greek-ruled kingdom in ancient Bactria (modern Afghanistan) during the third century B.C. Diodotus I and II, whose dynasty emblazoned its coins with the dynamic image of Thundering Zeus, led this historic movement by breaking free of the Seleucid Empire and building a strong independent state in Central Asia. The chronology and crises that defined their reigns have been established here for the first time, and Frank Holt sets this new history into the larger context of Hellenistic studies. The best sources for understanding Hellenistic Bactria are archaeological, and they include a magnificent trove of coins. In addition to giving a history of Bactria, Thundering Zeus provides a catalog of these coins, as well as an introduction to the study of numismatics itself. Holt presents this fascinating material with the precision and acuity of a specialist and with the delight of an admirer, providing an up-to-date full catalog of known Diodotid coinage, and illustrating twenty-three coins. This succinct, energetic narrative thunders across the history of Hellenistic Bactria, exhuming coins, kingdoms, and customs as it goes. The result is a book that is both a history and a history of discovery, with much to offer those interested in ancient texts, archaeology, and coins. |
Contents
3 | |
11 | |
CHAPTER 2 Across the Chasm | 23 |
MONETIZING THE EAST | 31 |
A TRAVELERS TALE | 39 |
CHAPTER 3 An Elusive Dynasty | 50 |
LITERARY SOURCES | 57 |
HISTORICAL PROCESSES | 62 |
CHAPTER 6 The World of Bronze | 109 |
PATTERNS OF EVERYDAY LIFE | 117 |
CHAPTER 7 The Monarchy Affirmed | 128 |
SILENCE IN BACTRIA | 135 |
APPENDIX A A Catalog of Diodotid Coinage in Silver and Gold | 141 |
APPENDIX B A Catalog of Diodotid Coinage in Bronze | 166 |
APPENDIX C Some Diodotid Gold Forgeries | 174 |
APPENDIX D A Selection of Ancient Texts | 176 |
CHAPTER 4 How Money Talks | 69 |
MISSING KINGS | 74 |
EXPANDING HORIZONS | 80 |
DIVISION IN THE RANKS | 85 |
CHAPTER 5 Thundering Zeus | 89 |
THE ELDER DIODOTUS | 96 |
THE YOUNGER DIODOTUS | 103 |
Glossary | 187 |
Abbreviations | 191 |
Select Bibliography | 195 |
211 | |
214 | |
216 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Achaemenid Afghanistan Agathocles Ai Khanoum Alexander Alexander's Ancient Coins Andragoras appendix archaeological Arsaces Babylon Bactria Bactrian coins Bernard Bopearachchi bronze coins California Press Cambridge catalogs Central Asia chap coin-type coinage Collection control mark CRAI cultural Demetrius Diodotid Diodotus II Diodotus's drachms dynasty East economic Eucratides Euthydemus Euthydemus's evidence excavated Fouilles d'Ai Khanoum Greek Hellenistic Age Hellenistic Bactria Hellenistic World hellénistique hoards Holt India Indo-Greek inscription Justin Khanoum Afghanistan king of Bactria Klearchos Kuhrt later lenistic Macedonian mintage mints Mitchiner Monnaies monogram Museum name of Antiochus Narain Newell Nikator nomads non-Greek numismatists obverse Oxford Oxus Paris Parthia Persic Gallery Sale Polybius portrait Prinsep Ptolemy reign royal Samarkhand Samarkhand to Sardis satrap scholars Seleucid empire Seleucus series H Sherwin-White Sogdiana sources specimens staters Strabo struck Takht-i Sangin Tarn Tarn's Tetradrachm texts thundering Zeus tria University Press wreath Zeus
Popular passages
Page xiii - But so far is he from having any desire for a more accurate knowledge of the earth's surface that he said he should prefer not to know the sources of the Nile, and that there should be some unknown regions preserved as huntinggrounds for the poetic imagination.
Page 6 - Tcherikover, Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1959) 90-116.